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Caesar
|tag skills = |derived = |level =30 |edid =FortCaesar |baseid = |refid = }} |content2= |content3= |content4= |content5= |content6= |content7= |content8= }} Caesar, born Edward Sallow,The Courier: "Were you always with the New Canaanites?" Joshua Graham: "I was born in Ogden, what people came to call New Canaan. Things were more peaceful when I was growing up. When I was a young man, I went out into the world to do missionary work as all New Canaanites do. I traveled along the Long 15 and followed 89 south into Arizona. Along the way, I met two men from a group called the Followers of the Apocalypse. Edward Sallow and Bill Calhoun. They came to teach the tribes. Calhoun was a good man. Edward was the one who got us into trouble down the road." (Joshua Graham's dialogue) is the charismatic leader, dictator and co-founder of Caesar's Legion in 2281. Worshiped by Legionnaires as the self-proclaimed "Son of Mars," a former member of the Followers of the Apocalypse and an ex-citizen of the NCR. Since subjugating the desolate region of the Grand Canyon in 2247, he has since forged his legion from 87 tribes of the former Four States Commonwealth. The militaristic might Caesar's Legion achieved completely pacified the commonwealth that the Legion occupied, but safe roads were only the first step to fully realizing a permanent Legion that could continue after his rule. The next great step was to expand westward and acquire a real "Rome" in the form of New Vegas that could be the base of his new empire. But, before they can continue westward, Caesar and his followers must deal with the New California Republic, a formidable military power that Caesar sees as his first worthy opponent. Background An educated and highly intelligent man, Caesar is infamous as the most dangerous enemy the New California Republic has faced. Inside the Legion, he is respected for his charisma as well as his brutality. These traits are the main reason such a large, sprawling organization hasn't collapsed into a slurry of small, infighting factions. But despite the grand persona Caesar has created for himself, he also has a less graceful side. If confronted with his past mistakes, or if he feels that he is not in complete control of a situation, Caesar will reveal his true nature as that of a prideful, megalomaniacal bully with a fragile ego and a hair-trigger temper, and act out in petulant denial and anger or childish spite. Now in 2281, Caesar looms in his field base/headquarters at Fortification Hill, waiting to cross the Colorado River to avenge his humiliation at the First Battle of Hoover Dam and finally annex New Vegas as the capital he feels his empire truly deserves. Caesar is playing his cards more cautiously this time, and will not give the order for Lanius to attack the Dam until he can unearth the contents of the vault sealed beneath his base in the Mojave. Caesar also needs to neutralize House, attempt to forge an alliance with the Boomers, Great Khans and the White Glove Society, as well as destroy the Mojave Brotherhood of Steel, and attempt to assassinate President Kimball. Two factors have halted his progress. He has a debilitating brain tumor that prevents him from fully administering to the day-to-day operations of the Legion and his interest in reports of a resourceful Courier who's ambiguous allegiance could either be a problem or, potentially, a boon to his efforts. Early life Born in 2226 near the Boneyard as Edward Sallow, he was once a citizen of the New California Republic. Following the death of his father at the hands of raiders in 2228, his mother sought the protection of the Followers of the Apocalypse. While she worked for the Followers, cooking and cleaning in their Library, the young Edward learned how to read and started taking courses, provided by the organization free of charge.The Courier: "How did you rise to power?" Caesar: "Ironically, I was born a Profligate myself, a citizen of the NCR. My family lived not far from the great Boneyard. After Raiders killed my father, my mother sought the Followers' protection. I was two years old. She found work at their Library, cooking and cleaning. I learned how to read and soon I was taking courses, free of charge." (Caesar's dialogue) Taught to bring the torch of knowledge to the wastes, Sallow was a student of uneven quality. Though he was highly intelligent, his success in scientific pursuits was only proportional to his interest in the given subject, nor was he particularly popular among his peers, due to his bad temper and narcissistic attitude. For Sallow, the Followers were never an inspiring example, their devotion to scholarship too stifling, their mission of enlightenment too naive.The Courier: "You were a Follower of the Apocalypse?" Caesar: "Oh yes, raised in that tradition. And the teaching stuck. I was taught it was my responsibility to bring the torch of knowledge to the wastes. " (Caesar's dialogue) In 2246, the twenty year old Sallow was an anthropologist and linguist. To benefit from his talents, the Followers sent him east towards the Grand Canyon, on his first expedition. Accompanied by a physician named Bill Calhoun and seven others, he was tasked with learning the dialects of the tribes inhabiting the region.The Courier: "What changed you from a Follower to dictator?" Caesar: "When I was 20, the Followers sent me East to Grand Canyon. It was my first expedition, just me and a physician named Calhoun. " (Caesar's dialogue) On the way to the Canyon, he and his companions happened upon a cache of historical books, the most significant to Sallow were on ancient Rome; including The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Gaius Julius Caesar's own Commentarii de Bello Gallico. He studied the books rigorously for two weeks, already inspiring him to be more but not yet aware of their coming greater significance.Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p.459: "Rebirth of the Son of Mars The adolescence and young adulthood of the man who calls himself Caesar were spent as a scribe of the Followers of the Apocalypse. While this boy had a quick mind, he made for a scribe of uneven ability, for his success in academics was equal to his interest in the subject assigned. Nor was he a favorite among his fellows. Though athletic and handsome, petulance held him back. He never felt that he belonged among the Followers, and blamed them for it. Their rigorous devotion to scholarship was stifling, their mission to ensure that humanity would never repeat the mistakes of the Great War was ridiculously naive. The boy longed for something more. When the time came for the boy to leave the Boneyard and trek the wastes as part of a nine-person expedition, wanderlust soon curdled into disappointment. The primitive conditions of the tribes the expedition encountered disgusted him. Inferior people all, wretched in their squalor. Still, he seemed to discern, amid the chaos of their petty struggles and everyday atrocities, the true order of the wastes-and it was one of anonymous, amoral liberty. The wastes called to the boy as a blank slate upon which a man of will could write his own destiny. During the same period of the time that the boy was coming to these insights, the expedition uncovered a cache of well-preserved historical texts. Among with adventure fiction and comic books, history had always been his favorite subject, and so the task of cataloguing and studying the texts fell to him. Though the boy had long been aware of basic facts concerning many ancient empires, these new texts filled in many previously obscure details. Reading The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire rendered him a veritable hermit for two weeks. But even that could not have prepared him for the Commentarii, the account of the military campaigns of Gaius Julius Caesar, written by the man himself. Reading Commentarii changed the boy's life. Unfortunately, it was destined to change the lives of thousands more, and for the worse. In Gaius Julius Caesar the boy found a man who seamed to have fulfilled the full measure of potential greatness allotted to him by fate, a man whose career spanned political accomplishment and military achievement in equal measure. Such adventure! And intrigue! And cool uniforms! The boy's frustrations with his lot in life gained sharp focus. In reading about Caesar, he was like an ant scurrying about the feet of a regal statue. He resolved that he would go to any lengths necessary to change the course of his life. The Commentarii would be his blueprint. In an illiterate, benighted world, who would ever know that Caesar was not his original creation? That night, Caesar offered a different sort of assistance to a tribe his expedition had contacted recently: weapons, medical supplies, and tactical expertise. He led several tribal accomplices back to the expedition's camp and through its defenses, and there oversaw the murder of his eight fellows. Within a week he was leading the tribe on ever more ambitious raids against neighboring bands of raiders and tribals." (Behind the Bright Lights & Big City) Prior to their arrival in the Grand Canyon, they met with Joshua Graham, a Mormon missionary and tribal specialist from New Canaan. Already an accomplished scholar of dialects, Graham was supposed to teach Sallow about the local languages. But before that could take place, the Blackfoot tribe captured the three scholars for ransom.The Courier: "Why would learning dialects be a waste of time?" Caesar: "If you think it's worthwhile to make smart people learn how to talk like backward savages, you're a Follower of the Apocalypse... or an idiot. Anyway, we met up with a Mormon missionary who already knew a bunch of dialects - Joshua Graham. He was supposed to teach me. But before that went too far, the Blackfoot tribe captured us, to hold us for ransom. They were a backward bunch. But the real problem was, they didn't know how to fight." (Caesar's dialogue) While Sallow believed the tribe did this for ransom, Graham would later attribute the change in the tribe's relationship with the party to a mistranslation. Rise to power The tribe was a sorry sight, weak and insignificant. Worse for the hostages, The Blackfoot were at war with seven other tribes; they were heavily outnumbered and Sallow recognized their defeat and subsequent demise was only a matter of time. Unwilling to sink with them, Sallow decided to take certain steps. Objections from fellow Follower Calhoun went unheard.The Courier: "What was wrong with the Blackfoot?" Caesar: "The Blackfoot were at war with seven other tribes, each just as pissant as they were. But outnumbered like that, they weren't going to last long. It's one thing to be taken hostage, another to be lashed to a sinking ship. So over Calhoun's objections, I decided to take certain steps." The Courier: "What steps did you take?" Caesar: "I taught them how to use the guns they already had - how to strip and clean them, how to breathe when pulling a trigger, how to reload ammunition. They looked at me like I was some kind of a sorcerer. So I taught them how to make explosives, and started drilling them on small unit tactics. " (Caesar's dialogue) After witnessing their lack of knowledge firsthand, Sallow stepped in to teach the tribe how to properly maintain their firearms, how to properly shoot targets, and how to reload ammunition. The next step was teaching them how to manufacture explosives and drilling in small unit tactics. All based on books Caesar read as a young boy. He quickly impressed them enough to the point where he was made their acting war chief. Once they were ready, Sallow led them against the Ridgers, their weakest enemy; divide et impera (divide and conquer). When the tribe refused to surrender, he ordered every man, woman, and child killed. No exceptions were made. The Blackfoot moved on under Caesar's lead, surrounding the Kaibabs tribe. Upon their refusal to surrender, Sallow took their envoy to the ruins of the Ridgers' village. The piles of corpses were a shocking sight to a tribesman who only knew tribal strife, "played at war" with the occasional raid, raping, and pillaging. This was total warfare at its most destructive and barbaric state. The concept of total warfare was an entirely new and terrifying type of conflict that the tribes had never encountered before. Such brutality would form the core of the Legion's tactics and philosophy.The Courier: "What happened after you trained the Blackfoot?" Caesar: " - divide and conquer. I led the Blackfoot against the Ridgers, their weakest enemy. When they refused to surrender, I ordered every man, woman, and child killed. When next we surrounded the Kaibabs and they likewise refused... I took one of their envoys to the Ridgers' village and showed him the corpse piles. This was new for the tribes, you see. They played at war, raiding each other, a little rape and pillage here, a little ransoming there. I showed them total warfare. Like I said, there's a lot you can learn from old books." (Caesar's dialogue) The Kaibabs promptly surrendered rather than suffer the same fate, then the Fredonians, then all the remaining tribes. Caesar was acutely aware that the root cause of all the problems was tribal identities, leading to internecine conflict and preventing any substantial recovery. He knew what had to be done. He had to erase all traces of tribal identities and replace them with a single, monolithic culture. A year later, in 2247,Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p.461: "'''Important Dates'"'' "2247 Inspired by his reading and the freedom offered by the wastes to write his own future, the young man conspires with a tribe to murder the other eight members of the expedition. He declares himself Caesar. Within a week, he is leading the tribe on ever more ambitious raids against neighboring bands of raiders and tribals, growing his forces by taking slaves." (Behind the Bright Lights & Big City) when his confederation was large enough, Sallow crowned himself as Caesar, leader of the Great Tribe: the Legion.The Courier: "What happened to the tribes?" Caesar: "The Kaibabs joined me, and the Fredonians after that - all the pissant tribes, with names that should be forgotten. I knew from the start I'd need to eradicate this plague of tribal identities, replacing them with a monolithic culture, a uniform identity. So that's what I did, once my confederation of tribes was large enough. I crowned myself and created a single Great Tribe - my Legion. I sent Calhoun, the Follower captured with me, back West with a message that I should not be interfered with. Joshua Graham, the Mormon interpreter, stayed with me and served as my first ." (Caesar's dialogue) He deliberately patterned it after the Imperial Roman Empire. One of the reasons was that this ancient, European culture was completely foreign, alien to the ignorant tribals he was subjugating. Caesar used the Commentarii as a blueprint―after all, which illiterate tribal would know that he was not the original Caesar, and his "Rome" was merely a copy of a civilization long gone. Second, he considered Rome's highly militarized autocracy adept at integrating conquered cultures the perfect template for a society that could adapt to the challenges of the post-apocalyptic world and thrive, institution prosperity and peace: a new Pax Romana.The Courier: "Why is Caesar's Legion so... strange?" Caesar: "I used imperial Rome as the model for my Legion precisely because it was so foreign, so . I'd seen what had become of the NCR's attempts to emulate the culture of Pre-War America - the in-fighting, the corruption. Rome was a highly militarized autocracy that effectively integrated the foreign cultures it conquered. It dedicated its citizens to something higher than themselves - to the idea of Rome itself. In Rome I found a template for a society equal to the challenges of the post-apocalyptic world - a society that could and would survive. A society that could prevent mankind from fracturing and destroying itself in this new world, by establishing a new ." (Caesar's dialogue) The Legion would be a nationalist, imperialist, totalitarian, completely homogenous culture that would focus on long-term stability at all costs.The Courier "What does "Pax Romana" mean?" Caesar: "It means a culture that obliterates the identity of every group it conquers. Long-term stability at all costs. The individual has no value beyond his utility to the state, whether as an instrument of war, or production." (Caesar's dialogue) He soon began putting his words into practice. Calhoun was sent away to the NCR as a messenger, and to warn them against interfering with Caesar's plans. While Calhoun was sent back to the Followers to inform them of what he was doing, the other seven members of the expedition were murdered on the self-proclaimed Emperor's orders. The newly-christened Caesar formed his Legion out of the tribes that had either been conquered or had chosen to capitulate to avoid total destruction. Joshua Graham would, however, ingrain himself in the Legion as Caesar's right-hand man and became the Legion's first Legatus, in time becoming known as the Malpais Legate. In the decades that followed, the Legion secured holdings in both Utah and Colorado, while the entirety of Arizona and a sizeable portion of New Mexico were brought under its control. Tribes were forcibly assimilated into the Legion, while cities and their inhabitants lived on as subjects of the Legion.J.E. Sawyer's Formspring: The additional Legion locations would have had more traveling non-Legion residents of Legion territories. The Fort and Cottonwood Cove made sense as heavy military outposts where the vast majority of the population consisted of soldiers and slaves. The other locations would have had more "civilians". It's not accurate to think of them as citizens of the Legion (the Legion is purely military), but as non-tribal people who live in areas under Legion control. While Caesar intentionally enslaves NCR and Mojave residents in the war zone, most of the enslavement that happens in the east happens to tribals. As Raul indicates, there are non-tribal communities that came under Legion control a long time ago. The additional locations would have shown what life is like for those people. The general tone would have been what you would expect from life under a stable military dictatorship facing no internal resistance: the majority of people enjoy safe and productive lives (more than they had prior to the Legion's arrival) but have no freedoms, rights, or say in what happens in their communities. Water and power flow consistently, food is adequate, travel is safe, and occasionally someone steps afoul of a legionary and gets his or her head cut off. If the Legion tells someone to do something, they only ask once -- even if that means an entire community has to pick up and move fifty miles away. Corruption within the Legion is rare and Caesar deals with it harshly (even by Legion standards). In short, residents of Legion territories aren't really citizens and they aren't slaves, but they're also not free. People who keep their mouths shut, go about their business, and nod at the rare requests the Legion makes of them -- they can live very well. Many of them don't care at all that they don't have a say in what happens around them (mostly because they felt they never had a say in it before the Legion came, anyway). Since 2250, Caesar has styled himself as the Son of Mars, divinely ordained to subjugate the world to his will, and five years later he established his first capital in the ruins of Flagstaff.The Courier: "And since forming the Legion, all you've done is conquer other tribes?" Caesar: "That's right. Decades of warfare, absorbing lesser tribes, gathering power. Forging the dross into a vast, razor-sharp scythe. My Legion's expansion has never ceased. Much of the Utah and Colorado, and all of Arizona and New Mexico, are mine. We have cities of our own, but nothing compared to Vegas. Finally, my Legion will have its Rome." (Caesar's dialogue) By 2274, he had conquered most of the tribes of Arizona, Colorado up to Denversee Hangdogs for references, New Mexico and eastern Utah, and became known as the "Conqueror of the 86 Tribes," whose Legion had never met any serious defeat until their confrontation with the NCR at the First Battle of Hoover Dam. War with the NCR The Republic has the dubious distinction of being recognized by Caesar as a worthy adversary and conflict with the NCR was inevitable. For Caesar, this was more than animosity or petty hatred. He sees himself as Caesar returning from his conquest of Gaul and the NCR as the corrupt Roman Senate. A textbook example of Hegelian dialectics, where the thesis and antithesis conflict, creating a synthesis when the conflict is resolved.The Courier: "So you'll destroy the NCR because you hate its inefficiencies?" Caesar: "No, I'll destroy it because it's inevitable that it be destroyed. It's Dialectics, not personal animosity." The Courier: "Hegelian Dialectics? What are those?" Caesar: " The fundamental premise is to envision history as a sequence of "dialectical" conflicts. Each dialectic begins with a proposition, a ... ...which inherently contains, or creates, its opposite - an antithesis. Thesis and antithesis. The conflict is inevitable. But the resolution of the conflict yields something new - a synthesis - eliminating the flaws in each, leaving behind common elements and ideas." (Caesar's dialogue) When the Legion conquers the NCR, it will be transformed from a republic crippled by bureaucracy, corruption, and gridlock into a highly efficient military dictatorship. The Legion will become a standing army protecting all the citizens of the new empire and the absolute power of its dictator.The Courier: "So what's "dialectic" about you and the NCR?" Caesar: "The NCR has all of the problems of the ancient Roman Republic - extreme bureaucracy, corruption, extensive senatorial infighting. Just as with the ancient Republic, it is natural that a military force should conquer and transform the NCR into a military dictatorship. Thesis and antithesis. The Colorado River is my Rubicon. The NCR council will be , but the new synthesis will change the Legion as well... ...from a basically nomadic army to a standing military force that protects its citizens, ." (Caesar's dialogue)Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p.460-461: "True to Caesar Many years have passed, and by post-apocalyptic standards, Caesar's accomplishments have been prodigious. But the man's hunger for greatness has never been sated. Having assembled a loose nation of slavers and slaves, having won countless "wars" against inferior peoples, secretly he still feels like an upstart, an amateur-a barbaric King of the Gauls, instead of a lofty emperor of Rome. To advance, he needs two things: a Carthage and a Rome. In the NCR he has at last found a great adversary, against which he can wage a military campaign worthy of history books. (Indeed, worth teaching his subordinates how to read and write, so that future generations can read his own Commentarii.) And in Vegas, powered and watered by its great dam, he has found a capital worthy of, well, a Caesar. Contrary to the old saw, Rome will be built in a day. With that out of the way, the next step will be to proclaim his apotheosis. All good Roman emperors became gods, although that was usually done posthumously..." (Behind the Bright Lights & Big City) Of course, the New California Republic was not willing to roll over and surrender. Following a series of skirmishes and smaller battles (most notably the destruction of Fort Aradesh out east), the Legion forced a confrontation. In 2277, the Legion faced the NCR at Hoover Dam, in what became known as the First Battle of Hoover Dam. Discovered by Ulysses, a frumentarius, the Dam was a symbolic Rubicon. At the time, Caesar's 68The Courier: "He must have a weakness." Ulysses: "His strength lies in his title - and it is his weakness. He will not fight a losing battle and destroy what he represents. Put the idea of loss in him. Convince him the Bear will not be the twentieth tribe beneath his heel, it will make him pause like nothing on earth. You do not need to convince him alone. Draw upon history. The past of other Legates are not filled with victories. Remind Lanius of this." (Ulysses' dialogue) reformed tribes under the command of the Joshua Graham marched against the NCR garrison at Hoover Dam, in an attempt to take the strategic asset and river crossing. However, Graham's elite troops were drawn into a trap laid by Chief Hanlon of the New California Republic Rangers. As General Lee Oliver's soldiers held the line, Rangers and Army sharpshooters targeted their commanders (primarily centurions and Decanii), sowing chaos among the common legionaries. The Legate, unable to adapt to new strategies in combat, ordered his elite forces to punch through and pursue Rangers decimating his officers, the Rangers and 1st Recon sharpshooters executed a tactical retreat into Boulder City. Elements of the Army and Rangers kept the Legion engaged long enough to allow the most experienced legionaries to enter the city. When they did, the Republic's forces pulled out of the city. Once most of them were safe (soldiers and Rangers trapped behind Legion lines had to be abandoned), they triggered explosives packed into the buildings in advance. Chief Hanlon's plan went off without a hitch: The exploding buildings acted as giant fragmentation bombs, killing and maiming most of the legionaries and leaving the rest in a state of shock; effectively crippling their offensive. The Army and Rangers followed the detonation with a counter-attack, pushing back and eventually routing the Legion forces and forcing the Malpais Legate to retreat from the Dam back to the east of the Colorado. Flanking attacks at Camp Golf and other camps in the Mojave were similarly repulsed.See First Battle of Hoover Dam for details and sources. The Malpais Legate returned to Caesar in shame. To demonstrate that failure is not tolerated, even at the highest of ranks, Caesar ordered Graham to be burned alive. The former Legate was covered in pitch, lit on fire, and thrown into the Grand Canyon. This was the worst defeat in Legion's history.The Courier: "What happened to Graham after Hoover Dam?" Hanlon: "Losing the dam was the worst defeat the Legion ever suffered. Graham had been with Caesar since the beginning, but he had to set an example. The praetorians covered Graham in pitch, lit him on fire, and down into the Grand Canyon he went." (Hanlon's dialogue) Graham was replaced by Legate Lanius, who embarked on a campaign of expansion eastward to subjugate further tribes for the Legion and gather forces for another confrontation with the Republic.The Courier: "Are you the Legion's second-in-command?" Lucius: " " (Lucius' dialogue) Over the next four years, Caesar rebuilt his army with 19 new tribes, creating the finest possible blade with which to cleave through the Republic. The Legion's increasing power was accompanied by a noticeable decline in Caesar's health. Once healthy, his face became sunken and sickly, his nature more reclusive. But the worst were the headaches, increasing in strength and frequency, affecting his ability to lead. Although they remained silent, the decline was visible to his officers, but Caesar denied these problems, lashing out at any queries.The Courier: "Are you all right?" Caesar: " " (Caesar's dialogue)The Courier: "I'll be the judge of that. Let's hear what you've got to say." Silus: "Something is wrong with Caesar. Something he is attempting to hide from his men. But it was obvious before we set out on this last mission. For three days, we awaited his order to dispatch us. Three days. But he hid in his tent, refusing to give orders. Complaining of headaches. He looks different now than he used to. His face is sunken, sickly. But any questioning of his health enrages him." (Silus' dialogue)The Courier: "And if you can't go through with it, you look even weaker." Silus: "SUCCEEDED You think I'm going to slit my throat for some megalomaniacal self-appointed dictator? I didn't work my way up to have it all be taken from me out of some irrational paranoia. Caesar's losing it. I believe that. He's been shutting himself in his tent. Privately, he complains of headaches. Whatever it is, it's affecting his ability to lead." (Silus' dialogue) The first hints of what might have been the problem appeared only a couple months prior with infrequent headaches. The headaches recurred increasingly along with blanking out mid-conversation. The most recent symptom to occur is Caesar's left leg stiffening and being only able to drag it.Caesar: "All right, let's state the obvious. There's something wrong with me. The headaches started a couple months ago. They weren't too bad at first... but now they come frequently and they're... . For the past two weeks, my left leg has been dragging. It's stiffer, hard to move. And you've seen me blank out. Lucius says I stare into space, blink a few times, then keep talking like nothing happened. So what's the diagnosis?" (FortCaesar.txt) While Caesar is untrained to diagnose himself, he's figured that he's likely suffering from a brain tumor, but defers to a professional's opinion on the diagnosis.the Courier: "I'm afraid your symptoms are consistent with a brain lesion, most likely a tumor." Caesar: "SUCCEEDED Congratulations, you just became my personal physician. Do you have what you need to treat my condition?" (FortCaesar.txt) Philosophy The bedrock of Caesar's philosophy is that service to the state is not just the highest virtue, it is the only virtue. Caesar is critical of NCR society as its leaders care not for the "greater good". This is contrary to Caesar's belief that "an individual has no value beyond his utility to the state, whether as an instrument of war, or production." He views the Great War of 2077 as a chance for humanity to start over and aims to unify humanity under one banner or eliminate them should they refuse. Reading through old world books, Caesar has gained knowledge of the old glory of Imperial Rome and has used the ignorance of his followers to claim that he is Caesar, the son of Mars, the God of War, and not Edward Sallow, former Follower of the Apocalypse. Aside from total military defeat, Caesar's greatest fear is being exposed as a fraud. Most members of the Legion, excluding some of the most trusted ones, are oblivious to the fact that the Legion's culture is based on books about ancient Rome – they believe that all of the customs enforced by Caesar were dictated to him by Mars himself. Those who claim otherwise are viewed as ultimate blasphemes and are likely to be executed. While some of the newly captured slaves are skeptical, they don't tend to be vocal about it, and their children are taken away from their parents to be raised by Caesar's priestesses.Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p.41: "'''Caesar's Legion'"'' "This horde of cruel, yet highly disciplined slavers has spread across the southwest like an all-consuming flame. Founded by a fallen member of the Followers of the Apocalypse, Caesar's Legion is effectively an enormous, conscripted slave army. As Caesar conquers the peoples of the wasteland, he strips them of their tribal identities and turns their young men into ruthless legionaries and women into breeding stock. Unlike the rag-tag Raiders back east, Caesar's "Legionaries" neither look nor act like haphazard, irregular troops. They are well organized, moving and attacking in large packs, and deliberately commit atrocities to terrorize those who might dare oppose them. True, Caesar is the perfect man. But he is not just a man: he is the Son of Mars, ordained by the god of war to conquer all Earth. To prepare the way, Mars razed the Earth, cleansed it with fire, and brought the weak and the wicked low; and now his son has come to deliver the wasteland from chaos and barbarism. To follow Caesar is to obey the will of Mars; to disobey is to condemn oneself to death. As the Son of Mars, Caesar has the divine right to demand servitude from all he encounters. Not everyone believes that Caesar is the product of a god's loins, of course. The most recently captured slaves tend to be pretty skeptical. But they aren't very vocal in their criticisms, and their children are raised not by skeptical parents but by priestesses appointed to that task by virtue of their knowledge of an adherence to the state religion. Nearly all physically capable, compliant males are compelled to serve in its armed forces. The primary value of pre-menopausal females is to serve as breeding stock (with Caesar or a legate governing how they are assigned to males), though they, like older females and less physically-capable men, are also used to perform a variety of other tasks. The largest unit of organization in Caesar's Legion is the Cohort, numbering about 480 infantrymen. Cohorts are further divided into Centuriae, which contrary to their name numbers about 80 men, and each Centuriae is divided into ten "tent groups" (Contubernia), making this the squad level of organization. Raiding parties are of this size (about eight men) and will be led by a Decanus (a squad leader, basically). Caesar desires two things: a Carthage, and a Rome. In the NCR he has at last found a grand adversary, against which he can wage a military campaign worthy of history books. And in Vegas, powered and watered by its great dam, he has found a capital worthy of, well, a Caesar. Contrary to the old saw, Rome will be built in a day. All it takes is plentiful slave labor, and Caesar has that in spades." Secretly, Caesar still doesn't feel like a real Emperor of Rome – with his loose nation of savages, he still thinks of himself as merely a barbaric king of the Gauls. Caesar desires two things: a Carthage, and a Rome; by seizing New Vegas, Caesar felt that he would finally be able to elevate his Legion into a legitimate nation by giving it its own "Rome" by destroying the NCR, Caesar's "Carthage" – transforming them from a nomadic army into a true empire; a militaristic, imperialist, autocratic, culturally homogeneous empire whose ruler holds undisputed power - a "Pax Romana" which would prevent humanity from ever fracturing itself again.The Courier: "What does "Pax Romana" mean?" Caesar: "It means a culture that obliterates the identity of every group it conquers. Long-term stability at all costs. The individual has no value beyond his utility to the state, whether as an instrument of war, or production." (Caesar's dialogue) Caesar regards the NCR as only an extension of the corruption that existed during the Old World and that it is ultimately doomed to repeat the same mistakes. He sees in it similar attributes associated with the Roman Republic before Julius Caesar seized power; extensive bureaucracy, corruption, senatorial infighting and filled with a people driven solely by greed and personal gain. It exists as the antithesis to the Legion and as a catalyst for change that only a confrontation with it can bring; a clash he sees as an inevitable product of Hegelian dialectics.The Courier: "So what's "dialectic" about you and the NCR?" Caesar: "The NCR has all of the problems of the ancient Roman Republic - extreme bureaucracy, corruption, extensive senatorial infighting. Just as with the ancient Republic, it is natural that a military force should conquer and transform the NCR into a military dictatorship. Thesis and antithesis. The Colorado River is my Rubicon. The NCR council will be , but the new synthesis will change the Legion as well... ...from a basically nomadic army to a standing military force that protects its citizens, ." (Caesar's dialogue) The conflict is a vital one, not only for the future of his Legion strategically but also philosophically; the NCR is the first of his enemies to which he is truly ideologically opposed and the first that can truly test the strength of his Legion, as well as his philosophy. In his view, the NCR does not have a long-term solution to the problems of the Wasteland - the bombs had reset humanity's progress and he believed the time had come to rebuild it into something new. He argues that NCR is weakened by its democracy, and that it was at its strongest when under the dominating rule of its second president – Tandi – whose popularity was such she remained leader of the NCR for most of her life until her death as the senate would never dare oppose her. He was taught to venerate her as a child and observes that she was ultimately more of a Queen than an elected official and that it is similar centralized power that a new civilization needs.The Courier: "President Tandi was voted into office each time." Caesar: "Because the council didn't dare oppose her. She was too popular. She had the people's love. So things ran smoothly, more or less. And as soon as she was gone, as soon as there really could be "democracy" - what happened then? Ever since losing its queen, the NCR has been weaker, more diffuse. Democracy has been its weakness, not its strength." (Caesar's dialogue) In the eyes of Caesar, the NCR that came after Tandi's presidency has been blighted with greed and widespread corruption because of the oligarchical control of politicians and brahmin barons looking out for only their interests instead of the greater good and its citizens. Caesar is simply quickening what is the inevitable, logical conclusion of the once virtuous NCR.The Courier: "How is the NCR weak?" Caesar: "Greed runs rampant. The government is corrupt, accepting bribes from Brahmin barons and landowners, to the detriment of citizens. The NCR is a loose conglomerate of individuals looking out for themselves. It's lost virtue. No one cares about the collective, the greater good. It's not built to last. I'm just hastening the inevitable." (Caesar's dialogue) Caesar also regards self-sacrifice as a necessary part of rebuilding civilization, as evidenced by the fact that he refuses the very notion of using the securitrons hidden inside the bunker underneath his camp. Caesar rejects allowing his Legion to advance technologically, believing that life must be kept hard and filled with sacrifice in order to strengthen humanity.The Courier: "You should use Mr. House's technology to attack the dam." Caesar: "You don't get it, do you? The weapons I wield are forged from blood, flesh, sinew, bone - mortal stuff. Fragile, even. And yet my Legion obeys me, even unto death. Why? Because they live to serve the greater good, and they know of no alternatives. House's machines, his technologies - what do they propose? The possibility of victory without sacrifice. No blood spilled, just... rivets. That's not an idea to be put in circulation. If mankind's going to survive this moment in history, it needs warriors, not ." (FortCaesar.txt) He has similarly kept his people ignorant of mankind's former knowledge of medical science, allowing his Legion to get by on primitive healing powders while he himself keeps an Auto-Doc in his tent for both his personal use as well as a "gift" to anyone Caesar favors.The Courier: "What is that machine in your tent?" Caesar: "It's called an Auto-Doc. As the name suggests, it's an automated physician - more or less. It can treat broken bones, cuts, punctures, scrapes. Sometimes I bestow its use upon someone I favor. Makes for a powerful gift, in a culture that forbids painkillers and is largely ignorant of medical science. " (FortCaesar.txt) Similarly, drugs and alcohol are completely forbidden from being used by legionaries,The Courier: "Is it dangerous to trade with the Legion?" Dale Barton: "Not at all - they're my best customers. As long as you don't try to sell 'em chems or alcohol, they treat you fair. Hell, I don't even need to travel with guards most of the time in Legion territory. All the bandits are dead or run off."(Dale Barton's dialogue) so most legionaries must make do with previously mentioned healing powder, Bitter drink or concocting new remedies like Hydra, all with the caveat that the pain remains. Interactions with the player character Interactions overview Quests * Render Unto Caesar: From here on out, the player can choose to work for Caesar, and thus, the Legion. * Et Tumor, Brute?: Caesar has a lethal brain tumor that he desperately needs fixed. * The House Always Wins, Wild Card: You and What Army?: When the player comes to The Fort, Caesar believes he has another pawn to use. He orders the Courier to go to the underground weather monitoring station and destroy the securitron vault. When Mr. House or Yes Man contacts you from within the bunker and tells the Courier to activate all the securitrons, the player can. The resultant shaking of the ground fools Caesar into thinking you destroyed whatever was there. * Return to Sender: If Caesar has been killed, the player can complete the quest by convincing Chief Hanlon to stop his plot against the NCR, thus allowing both the Rangers led by the Chief and the Troopers led by Lee Oliver to be praised for their victory in Hoover Dam (If the Courier joins the Republic), having Hanlon retire (If the Player join Yes Man/House), or the remaining Rangers being killed to the last by the Legion (if one joins the Legion). * I Forgot to Remember to Forget: If Caesar is killed, 2 companion points are gained, which helps gain access to Craig Boone's personal quest. Effects of player's actions * If the player has completed Restoring Hope or I Put a Spell on You (on the NCR side), Caesar will mention how you have been so much trouble for the Legion. This also happens by completing Birds of a Feather, killing Dead Sea (can be done with or without completing Restoring Hope), breaking the alliance with the Khans in Oh My Papa, brokering peace between the Kings and the NCR as part of Kings' Gambit, completing How Little We Know in Cachino's favor, or killing Vulpes Inculta. * If none of the above actions have been taken, Ceasar will offer compliments if the player has done quests or done certain tasks detrimental to the NCR, or completed quests for the Legion before meeting Caesar such as completing Cold, Cold Heart, unlocking Archimedes II for yourself in That Lucky Old Sun, killing or releasing Silus in Silus Treatment, and completing We Are Legion. * After Caesar has gone to lie down and told the player to leave him alone. If the player ignores him and speaks to him again, he will call on his praetorians and they will attack you. * Caesar will turn hostile and send his Praetorian guards to attack if the player refuses to work for him twice. Other interactions * Caesar's ailment can be inquired about if your Medicine skill of 40, but sometimes the pain will bother him enough that he will cut the conversation and lie down. You can talk to him, mentioning that you believe something is wrong, after which he will lie back down and warn you not to speak to him again until the following day. ** Ignoring him and attempting to speak to him again, Caesar will call on his praetorians and they will attack you. * Caesar is one of the characters that the player must eat in order to earn the Meat of Champions perk. Killing Caesar If the player manages to kill Caesar the effects on the game are fairly minor, (although the Legion ending is massively changed), due to the fact that Caesar, as the leader of the Legion, no longer directly participates in combat. * If the Courier speaks to Caesar before attacking him, they can say "Death to tyrants!" This is a common mistranslation of the Latin phrase "Sic semper tyrannis." The actual translation of this phrase is "Thus always to tyrants." This is believed to have been uttered by the assassins of the real Julius Caesar. The latter is also the name of a challenge to assassinate the NCR's President. * If Caesar dies for any reason other than his illness in Et Tumor, Brute?, Legion reputation will automatically change to Vilified, even if you didn't kill him yourself. * Julie Farkas exclaims "So, the great Caesar is dead ..." and goes on saying that she doubts that it will have much effect on the imminent attack. * If the player talk to Mr. House about killing Caesar before he dies, Mr. House will reply that "He does not want you to touch one hair on that man's head, assuming you can find one." He says that Caesar provides a good distraction for the NCR. ** If the player kills Caesar while working with Mr. House on the various "The House Always Wins" quests, you can return to Mr. House and tell him that Caesar is dead. Mr. House simply notes that this has a "minimal" impact on the battle for Hoover Dam and offers no reward or punishment for the action.The Courier: "You do know Caesar is dead, don't you?" Robert House: "By my calculations, his death will affect the shape of the battle for Hoover Dam minimally, if at all. The Legion's aggression will outlive Caesar. Indeed, they'll try to take the dam as a tribute to his memory. Given a year, they'd have him deified - but by then the Legion will be breaking down, riven by internal conflicts, a monster consuming itself. It's irrelevant. In the short term, the Legion is still monster enough that defeating it will make me look powerful indeed." (Robert House's dialogue) * If the player kills Caesar, Mr. New Vegas will say "it is still unknown how the assassin managed to evade security," even if you killed Caesar in a frontal assault on The Fort (i.e., didn't evade security). * If Caesar is killed with Boone as a companion, Boone will smugly say "Thumbs down, you son of a bitch!" - a reference to the gesture that is commonly thought to have called for the execution of a failed gladiator in ancient Rome, interestingly though, thumb inside the fist actually meant "mercy" or "weapons down." He will subsequently have further dialogue options when selecting the "Talk" option. He will also talk about the death of Caesar having little effect on the attack on Hoover Dam, but admits, on prompting from the Courier, that he still enjoyed it immensely. You will also gain two points to use toward Boone's quest I Forgot to Remember to Forget. * If the player speaks to Lily, she will remark that Leo thinks there will be more people to chop up and that the player should be careful. * There is dialogue with the Legate at the end of the game, stating "So, Caesar giving orders from beyond the grave?" - an indication that Mr. House is right and Caesar's death was no more than a minimal setback. However, House will also note that Lanius is a poor leader compared to Caesar, and predicts that within a year of his death the Legion will be torn apart by infighting. * Caleb McCaffery greets you with "All hail the slayer of Caesar!" * Marcus remarks that the Legion follows Caesar, not Caesar's ideals and that when Caesar dies the Legion will fall apart—though perhaps not immediately. * Most NCR troopers will say: "Wish I could have been there to see Caesar die. What an asshole." * Chairmen at The Tops will state "That's the guy/gal who killed Caesar!" * Francine Garret states "here's one on the house for taking down Caesar, serves him right for treating women like livestock," and gives you a free bottle of liquor. * James Garret will also give you a free bottle of liquor, like his sister. * Some travelers on the Strip will comment, "Now that you've killed that Caesar bastard, the Strip's really going to bloom." * White Gloves in the Ultra-Luxe will comment, "I hear you killed Caesar, is it true, that he wore a toupee?" * If Caesar is killed, Sergeant McCredie at Camp Golf will complement the Courier on a great job, and Mags will say "I hear Caesar's dead, and we have you to thank for it... nice work." * In Honest Hearts you are able to tell Joshua Graham that you saw Caesar die. He will not react much to the news but he will admit that he thought he would die before Caesar. He also remarks that Caesar's death is good news for the Mojave, and states that without Caesar's leadership the Legion will eventually fall apart. However, you cannot do the reverse, as killing the Legion's former right hand man (or even leaving him alive) brings no dialogue options with Caesar. * If the player speaks to Lily, she will remark that Leo thinks there will be more people to chop up and that the player should be careful. * If the player speaks to Ulysses after the end of Lonesome Road you can tell him if you have killed Caesar, he isn't angry despite his former allegiance to the Legion and states that the east may fall apart in time but that it's too soon to tell; he goes on to say that unless you do the same to Lanius he won't thank you. * While near the end of Return to Sender, the player can convince Chief Hanlon to come back to his senses and cease falsifying the reports by reporting Caesar's death to him. Inventory Notes * Members of the Legion pronounce Caesar's name /ˈkaizar/, a post-classical Latin pronunciation, emphasizing the diphthong. Legionaries who knew him before the Legion, as well as most other wastelanders, pronounce it as the Anglicized /ˈsiːzər/. * Whether out of hubris or blatant hypocrisy, Caesar is the only one in his faction who doesn't speak in a formal, bookish manner in any way. Barring his occasional use of Latin and his occasional informative speech, he speaks in a casual, "modern-day," sour tone. He is also one of the most profane characters in the entire game, swearing multiple times in most of his conversation paths. * Caesar holds some level of respect for Aaron Kimball, calling him "a man of potential." He believes that Kimball would have been more powerful and had more control over the NCR if he had seized power, instead of being elected. * If you pickpocket Caesar while he sees you, he will automatically turn hostile (his inventory doesn't open). * If Caesar dies, his body will never disappear. * If Caesar turns hostile, he appears to not have an "attacking expression," and will attack with an expression on his face as if he wasn't angry. * In Honest Hearts, there remains an unused model, although possibly used for Honest Hearts intro slides, of Caesar named NVDLC02CaesarYounger. The only difference between the model used in Fallout: New Vegas and this model is that the unused model has a comb-over. Notable quotes | | | | | | | }} Appearances Caesar appears only in Fallout: New Vegas but is mentioned in the add-ons Honest Hearts, Old World Blues''He is mentioned by the Toaster. and ''Lonesome Road. He was going to appear in Van Buren, the canceled Fallout 3 by Black Isle Studios. Behind the scenes * John Gonzalez wrote Caesar and J.E. Sawyer asked for Caesar to present his rationale in the framework of his interpretation of Hegelian dialectics.so who did the writing for Caesar in New Vegas, and who decided he should give an overview of Hegelian dialectics? Formspring * Caesar possesses a number of parallels to his historical counterpart. For example, the historical Caesar actually suffered from a condition similar to the one depicted in-game. He had headaches, blackouts, and sometimes even seizures. In terms of appearance, Caesar is balding and has an Aquiline nose, a sign of nobility in ancient Rome. One thing of note is that Caesar is 55 years old in 2281, and the historical Julius Caesar was assassinated at the age of 56 on March 15, 44 B.C. * Metzger, the leader of the Slavers Guild from the Den, was initially named Caesar. * Caesar claims to be the son of Mars; through his claimed ancestor, Romulus, C. Julius Caesar claimed to be a descendant of the god Mars as well. * In a quote, Caesar refers to the Rubicon River, which the real Julius Caesar actually crossed in 49 B.C., triggering the Roman civil wars. Roman armies were forbidden from crossing it (and, as such, entering Rome itself) except for few exceptions. Therefore, having his armies cross the river was the same as a declaration of war and as such an irreversible decision, a point of no return. This reference, in combination with Caesar's plan of making Vegas the true capital of his empire, parallels the historical Caesar. * Though Caesar claims he is following the example of the Roman Empire in creating a homogeneous culture through conquest, this demonstrates he is not quite as educated on the Empire as he believes: the real Empire achieved control over many areas by requiring the populace to submit to Roman rule but honoring local customs and allowing local leaders to continue their rule as long as they took orders. Caesar's Legion is considerably more controlling than the actual Empire was, requiring much more brutal force than Rome usually exerted over its territories.http://www.theancientworld.net/civ/roman_empire_culture.html This is especially true seeing as historians considered this period to be that of the Roman Republic and not yet the Roman Empire (while Romans at the time always called it a Republic), and despite Julius Caesar's often imperialistic and dictatorial actions that are seen as the catalyst for the creation of the Empire, there is still doubt over his true intentions for Roman society. The previous Roman tyrant before him was Sulla, who also similarly caused a civil war by marching on Rome: Sulla instituted many reforms, then resigned after about a year and retired, disbanding his legions and establishing government once again. Julius Caesar was very popular with the lower and middle classes of society and enacted many populist reforms (including extending citizenship rights and abolishing the tax system that relied on Roman intermediaries) all the way up to his assassination by elite members of the Senate. Developer quotes Gallery Caesar and guards.jpg|Caesar with his most trusted men King of Clubs.jpg|Collector's Edition playing card Caesar.png|A GECK render of Caesar FNV Legion golden coin.png|Caesar on a Legion coin (Aureus) Render Unto Caesar.png|Caesar and Vault Boy in the achievement/trophy for Render Unto Caesar FNVHH Intro Slide11.jpg|Caesar in an intro slide References Category:Honest Hearts mentioned-only characters Category:Old World Blues mentioned-only characters Category:Caesar's Legion characters Category:The Fort characters Category:Followers of the Apocalypse Category:Fallout: New Vegas human characters Category:Van Buren human characters Category:Fallout publications human characters Category:Antagonists Category:Collector's Edition playing card characters de:Caesar es:César fi:Caesar fr:Caesar it:Caesar pl:Cezar pt:Caesar ru:Цезарь uk:Цезар zh:凯撒